This article was written by Anayah Mendez-Chess
Many classes make you yawn but Advanced Placement (AP) Seminar with Mrs. Miles is like chugging a redbull.
Being a student in High School can be fun if you have something interesting going on in your classes. For example, 8:40 this past Monday, sophomores walked into their AP Seminar class not knowing they were going to watch a very interesting Ted Talk that would change their image on peoples lives.
Wanting to engage her students in a lesson on the importance of perspective, AP Seminar teacher Janelle Miles chose to show her second period class a video about the life experience of people in Nigeria. It focuses on a middle aged woman named Chimimanda Negoiaici and her young son who are struggling with their day to day life. In the talk Negoiaici tells us about her family and life experiences in Nigeria were extremely difficult.
Students were impacted by this Ted Talk in a variety of ways. Sophomore Kirsten Jaggers realized the impact of location in the world on lifestyle.
“The story she told really makes you think about how other people’s minds work and how different people’s perspectives are based on where you live,” Jaggers said.
Sophomore Keegon Foor made a connection between ethnicity and lifestyle.
“In the ted talk Negoicici claims that her race and her cultural practices are a big factor in her and her sons lives. It changed my view on how they live day to day. I realized they don’t have it as easy as some people do,” Foor said.
Miles found the Ted Talk to be a powerful source for her students. Especially in the realm of connecting an outside perspective to their own life. The talk shows how Negoiaici finds positivity in the hardest of circumstances. This relates to many student experiences.
“I think this topic really gets you outside of your personal bubble. When hard things come up in life instead of holding it in, this can allow you to open up, or as we say in my class, to be a better open minded, thoughtful, responsible citizen of the world,” Miles said.
Overall this lesson was an exercise in developing empathy. A natural skill for many needs to be developed for others. A first step in gaining empathy is gaining perspective. In the words of famous actor and producer Sterling K. Brown,
“Empathy begins with understanding life from another person’s perspective.”
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